is mighty process--the laying of the structural
basis of the Baha'i world Administrative Order--was being initiated,
officially expelled all adherents of the Faith of Muslim extraction from
Islam, had condemned them as heretics and brought the members of a
proscribed community face to face with tests and perils of a character
they had never known before. The unjust decision of a civil court in
Ba_gh_dad, instigated by _Sh_i'ah enemies, in 'Iraq, and the decree issued
by a still more redoubtable adversary in Russia had, moreover, robbed the
Faith, on the one hand, of one of its holiest centers of pilgrimage, and
denied it, on the other, the use of its first House of Worship, initiated
by 'Abdu'l-Baha and erected in the course of His ministry. And finally,
inspired by this unexpected declaration made by an age-long enemy--marking
the first step in the march of their Faith towards total emancipation--and
undaunted by this double blow struck at its institutions, the followers of
Baha'u'llah, already united and fully equipped through the agencies of a
firmly established Administrative Order, had arisen to crown the immortal
records of the first Baha'i century by vindicating the independent
character of their Faith, by enforcing the fundamental laws ordained in
their Most Holy Book, by demanding and in some cases obtaining, the
recognition by the ruling authorities of their right to be classified as
followers of an independent religion, by securing from the world's highest
Tribunal its condemnation of the injustice they had suffered at the hands
of their persecutors, by establishing their residence in no less than
thirty-four additional countries, as well as in thirteen dependencies, by
disseminating their literature in twenty-nine additional languages, by
enrolling a Queen in the ranks of the supporters of their Cause, and
lastly by launching an enterprise which, as that century approached its
end, enabled them to complete the exterior ornamentation of their second
House of Worship, and to bring to a successful conclusion the first stage
of the Plan which 'Abdu'l-Baha had conceived for the world-wide and
systematic propagation of their Faith.

Kings, emperors, princes, whether of the East or of the West, had, as we
look back upon the tumultuous record of an entire century, either ignored
the summons of its Founders, or derided their Message, or decreed their
exile and banishment, or barbarously persecuted their followers, or